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CONTRIBUTION 



KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS 



BRAND IN THE CEREALS 



BLIGHT IN GRAIN. 

/ 
BY A. C. CORDA. 






Translated from the German lor the Am. Joar. of Agriculture and Science, by 

BY E. GOODRICH SMITH, 

Of the United States Patent Office. 



ALBANY: 

PRINTED BY J. MUNSELL. 

1847. 






Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1847, by 

E. EMMONS, 
In the Clerk's office for the Northern District of New York. 



PREFACE. 



The respected reader will pardon the freedom with which the author seeks 
to illustrate old long known facts in a way probably somewhat new to the 
husbandman — and he will find in these sketches simply plain matters of fact 
without any scientific pedantry The author has no wish to searcli into the 
vast lore, or to reproduce the views of past observers, although he is well 
acquainted with all the works, even those only partially worthy of notice, 
from Theophrastus to Strauss, Bulliard, Meyen,.Ungar, on this subject, among 
which, the labors of Banks, Fries and Unger, must be considered as the best 
guides. The author's aim is only to build on the foundations of facts de- 
pending on the inlern.\l structure and physiological connection, without de- 
siring to admit or oppose the views, theories and so called experiments of 
others. In all pathological inquiries, besiilcs Prof. Unger, none of the wri- 
ters with whom I am acquainted have regarded the anatomical structure itself 
of plants. Usually, the so called experiments are presented which are op- 
posed either by their own obscurity or by similar observation of the same or 
a succeeding investigator. These views the author of these pages has no 
wish to appropriate; and, therefore, he begs the respected reader to receive 
the following pages as the result of more than twenty years' observations, in 
■which time the author has been especially occupied with the study of the 
5)arasilic fungi. At the same time, ilshould be recollected that this first cycle 
of pathological trsatises regards the parasitic forms of disease as a complete 
subject, without any reference to their primitive origin, so far as this is pos- 
sible; for to the perfect phijsiotogicul Imuwledge of an organic individuj.1 be- 
longs previously the entire knowledge of its species and its anatomical struc- 
ture; as without these two foundations the author himself can only proceed 
on baseless views and superficial, wordy talk; and so much the more, if be- 
longing to a certain school, he wishes to glos? over an upright, independent 
" it ercio" with philosophic form. But to the subject; 



iv Preface. 

Vegetable parasites, like the animal ones, form a great and very rich fami- 
ly; and the majority of them belong to the fungi. The same parasites which 
develop themselves in the texture of our cereals are also the more worthy of 
notice; and therefore I first of all examined them, and will afterwards also 
describe and represent the species which habitate in our other vegetables. 

The collective specimens of brand belong to a humble family of fungi, to 
which the natural historian gives the family name of Caeomaca, and all the 
species of this great family are parasites. They distinguish themselves by 
the simple characteristics — " single-celled spores or seeds," from all the kin- 
dred families to which still by the development of the interior texture of their 
organism they belong. The most important of these families for our object 
are the wheat brand, the oat brand, the barley brand, the maize and millet 
brand. All these belong only to the families of the grasses; and of our culti- 
vated grasses, the rye only is certainly marked as the particular species on 
which hitherto no species of brand has been discovered; an observation first 
made by Prof. Kunze of Leipsic, and which I have found confirmed in all 
parts of central Europe, although many authors also speak of the rye brand 
as one of the most common appearances. In the level country of Germany 
and Austria, besides the red stalk brand (Undo rubigo,) and the pedicel brand, 
{Puceinia graminis,) there is found no brand on rye; and only in cloudy, 
moist, mountainous regions is there any fungus of the family of the fibrous 
fungi, (Tricho vel Hijpbomycetes, Juct.) found on the ears of rye, to which 
fungus the people improperly give the name of " the rye brand," and which 
I shall consider specially below. I shall here exhibit besides many illustra- 
tions of the definitions of the particular organs and terms of expression; but 
all these illustrations must be only short here, and can be but imperfectly 
given; and the reader may obtain an intimate and detailed knowledge of the 
organs here spoken of in my " Guide to the Study of Mycology," p. 21—36. 
I will omit the same, and at once proceed to illustrate the form of structure of 
the various species of brand. 



BRAND IN THE CEREALS. 



The respected reader of tLis essay, will pardon the freedom 
■with which the author illustrates an old long known subject, in a 
manner probably somewhat strange to farmers, or if he should 
find set down in these sketches only real matters of fact without 
any display of scientific learning. The author likewise proffers 
no copious literature or reproduction of the views of past observers, 
although nearly all the writers on the subject are known to him 
from Tkeophrastus to Tessier, Strauss, Bulliard, Meyen and Un- 
ger; among whom he would notice the works of Banks, Fries 
and Unger as the best guides. The author's object is to prepare 
a foundation of facts derived from the internal structure and phy- 
siological texture, without aiming to admit or oppose the views, 
theories and so-termed knowledge of others. In all pathological 
inquiries, no one of the authors, so far as I am acquainted, has 
regarded the anatomical structure of the plants themselves. Usu- 
ally the so-termed observations are set forth, which are contra- 
dicted either by their own obscurity or by similar observations of 
the author himself, or those of others who succeed him. Such a 
course does not consist with the views of the author of these 
pages, and therefore he begs the respected reader to receive the 
following remarks as the result of more than twenty years' obser- 
vations, during which period he has been occupied with the par- 
ticular study of the parasitic fungi. At the same time he wishes 
this first epitome of pathological investigations into the parasitic 



2 Brand in the Cereals. 

forms of disease, to be regarded as a complete tvhole, without any 
reference to their primitive origin, so far as this is possible; since 
to the perfect physiological knouiedge of an organised subject 
must belong previously the entire knowledge of Us nature and an- 
atomical structure; as without these two foundations the writer 
can only deal in unfounded suppositions and superficial discourse, 
full of empty words. This is especially the case if, belonging to 
a certain school, he is desirous of glossing over a bold, upright 
admission of his ignorance with philosophical forms. But to our 
subject. 

The vegetable parasites, like the animal, form a large and ex- 
tremely numerous family of plants, and the greatest portion of 
them belong to the class of the fungi. Those parasites, which 
develope themselves in the texture of our grain plants, are by far 
the most worthy of notice, and therefore I have examined them 
first of all, and will afterwards describe and delineate the kinds 
which habitate in our other cultivated plants. 

The various kinds of brand collectively belong to a family of 
fungi of humble rank, which natural historians call by the family 
name of the Caeomacece, and all the species of this great family 
are parasites. They are distinguished from all the kindred fami- 
lies to which they are allied, in their internal organic texture, by 
the single characteristic that they have solely one-celled spores or 
seeds. The species of this family, most important for our consid- 
eration, are the Wheat Brayid, the Oat Brand, the Barley Brand, 
the Maize and Millet Brands. All these species habitate only 
in the family of the grasses, and of our cultivated grasses rye is 
only to be distinguished as that species on which, up to this time, 
there has with certainty been found no true species of brand, an 
observation which was first made by Prof. Kunze of Leipsic, and 
which I have thus far found confirmed in almost all parts of Cen- 
tral Europe, although many writers speak of the rye brand as 
one of the most common appearances. In the level country of 
Germany and Austria, besides the red stalk rust ( Uredo rubigo) 
and the stalk brand {Puccinia graminis), no brand is found on 
rye; and it is only in the mountainous regions which are cloucJy 




tNt l_-^^ rry!(t(> s,r<^M!a Dittmar F:,, 2.y .26. UreaeAv^^rKp. Corda 



Brand in the Cereals. 3 

and moist, that there is a fungus of the family of the fibrous fungi, 
{Trichovel Hyphomyceies Jluct.)w\\\c\\ lodges in the ears of rye, 
and which fungus the common people very incorrectly call the 
rye brand or smoke brand, and which I shall consider particularly 
hereafter. 

I shall lilfewise take for grantetl many explanations of the 
definitions of particular organs and phraseology; for, as such ex- 
planations could only be very short in a periodical journal, they 
must hence be also imperfect, and the reader may accjuire accu- 
rate and minute knowledge of the terms here applied to :he or- 
gans, in my Guide to the Study of Mycology, pages 21-36. I 
will therefore omit the same, and proceed at once to the descrip- 
tion of the structure of the various species of brand. 

I. Of the Wheat ok Smut BRA^^), {Uredo Sitophila Dit/mar.) 

Plate I. Fig. 1—22. 

Among all the species of brand which infest our grain crops, 
this is by far the most worthy of notice. It lodges only in the 
ears of wheat, and is found in no other kind of grain or orass. It 
migrates with wheat in all climates of the earth, without beino- 
subject to local influences, as is almost ever the case with the oth- 
er cultivated plants. The farmer dreads it most, and justly, for 
being lodged in the ears when they arc brought to be threshed, it 
is there dispersed by the flail or threshing machine, and thus di- 
rectly infects the sound grain, while the barley and oat brands are 
for the most part out on the field, and hence the largest portion 
of the seed of these latter kinds of brand necessai'ily falls on mea- 
dow, forest, or other kinds of soil, which are not applied to the 
cultivation of grain, and so, for the want of plants adapted to the 
infection, are not further spread. But the consideration of the 
infection and transmission of the various species of brand by 
means of threshing and the sowing of their seeds, I reserve for a 
more comprehensive subsequent treatise. 

Those halms of wheat which afterwards bear ears affected 
with brand, may be early distinguished, before their bloom, by 



4 Brand in the Cereals. 

their luxuriant growth and their dark green color, as well as by their 
large, broad, stiff leaves. They apparently bloom much earlier; 
but very often (yet not always) their anthers contain no grains of 
pollen (powder of fructification), and the first act of fructification, 
the shedding of their pollen on the cup of the pistil, is very im- 
perfect, and should the ears affected by the brand and already dis- 
eased be dusted with sound pollen, the little balls of pollen, usual- 
ly form no aggregation of pollen on the pistil, or such as are 
formed do not press into the pistil and down to the ovary. The 
fructification of the blossoms of wheat affected by brand is there- 
fore imperfect, and in case the grains of pollen form no cluster in 
the cup, then there is indeed no fructification. But the careful 
observer finds on almost all the ears ripe for receiving the grains 
of brand, on the side of every seed corn affected with brand, one 
or two anthers (Plate I, Fig. 3, 4, b, b), which on the buds which 
are well fructified and bear seed, the anthers with their stamens 
have long since fallen off. The anthers which remain standing 
on the grains affected with brand, are usually destitute of pollen, 
and sometimes we find that the same, in consequence of efforts at 
imperfect fructification, are stuck, as it were, (Fig. 4, b, right 
side), to the pistils which remain standing (Fig. 4, c). The 
two pistils which remain standing, of the seed affected with brand, 
are usually covered and joined together, by delicate white threads 
interwoven like mould in a sort of network (Plate I, Fig. 4, c). 
This mould formation belongs essentially to the wheat brand, and 
forms as it were a part of the root texture of the fungus constitut- 
ing the brand. It always exists, only frequently more or less de- 
veloped, and therefore more or less easily found. It wholly covers 
the head of the seed, and lies between the chaff-hairs (Fig. 16, h), 
while the sound seed exhibits not a trace of such an interwoven 
fibrous formation among the chaff-hairs on its head. The same is 
also the case in respect to the pistils of the sound seed (Fig. 
16, i). With the development of this outer fibrous mould begins 
likewise the transformation of the seed, as well in respect to its 
external form as to its internal structure. 

If the transformation which the seed of wheat undergoes by the 



Brand in the Cereals. 5 

foniialion of bianil, be examined, we find that tlie particles have 
undergone either an entire or partial transrormation in respect to 
internal structure, and without here entering on the technological 
signification of the several parts of the seed, I shall describe the 
same, in a way generally intelligible, and simply, as should al- 
ways be done, and so pass over the head as well as the pistil, since 
they suffer no visible change by the formation of the brand. The 
same is true of the glumes and petals, the anthers and the spike 
of the ears themselves. 

The fruit or seed of the wheat viewed on the outside, consists of 
an elongated irregularly egg-shaped body (Fig. 16, f), having on 
the front surface a streak or furrow lengthwise, (Fig. 16, k), 
which bears on the point the pistil (Fig. 16, i), and the head 
(Fig. 16, h). 

At the bottom we see on the back, the little shield (Fig. 15), 
containing the germ, and the front side the little opening, Feus- 
tprchen,(^F\g. 16, g). If the seed is cut across through the 
middle (Fig. 18), we find that it has an outer skin (Fig. 18, 1), 
which by bending inward forms the furrow lengthwise (k). In- 
side of this skin are found white hard transparent bodies contain- 
ing starch-meal which natural historians call the albuminous bo- 
dies, " the albumen" of the seed (Fig. 18, m). If now we cut 
off as thin as possible, a slice perfectly transparent in the direc- 
tion already mentioned, and examine the same microscopically, 
we find that, 

1. The skin of the seed (Fig. 18, 1), consists of three layers, 
to wit: 

a. The outer layer, (Fig. 19, n); 

b. The middle layer, (Fig 19, o); and 

c. The inner layer, (Fig. 19, p), on which layer immediately 
lies a large soft cellular strata, which contains the grains of gluten 
(Fig. 19, q), nearest the inside lie the aniylum cells, containing 
the starch-raeal, (Fig. 19, r, s). 

a. The outer layer of the seed-skin, (Fig. 19, n), consists of two 
layers of thick-walled porous cells, which stand with their longest 
diameter parallel to the axis of the seed, and the walls of which 



6 Brand in the Cereals. 

contain slio;ht hollows or little canals, which in a section cut length- 
wise and very strongly magnified (Fig. 20, w), give to the cel- 
lular walls a form as if they were formed of oblong figures. 

b. The second layer (Fig. 19, o) of tlie seed-skin, consists of 
similar cells to those of the first layer, only the walls of the cells 
are not so thick, and the pores, which these walls contain are 
much more distinctly (Fig. 19, o) to be seen, than is the case in 
the cellular walls of the first layer of the skin. But the cells of 
this layer stand with axis of length horizontally to the axis of the 
first cellular layer and of the seed, and therefore run as it were 
parallel to outer surface of the seed. In a section lengthwise they 
resemble even to the direction of the cells of the first layer of cells, 
and are nearly as large as they are (Fig. 20. x, x). 

c. The third layer is extremely soft and somewhat confused. 
Its cells are so small, that we can discern their hollows only in- 
distinctly and in the form of mere streaks (Fig. 19, p). 

2. Directly under this cellular strata or of the seed-skin in 
general, we find situated the already mentioned cells of gluten, 
(Fig. 19, q). They are large bag-formed cells, with extremely 
thin scarcely visible cellular walls, w'hich are filled exclusively 
with the gluten, a small-grained, greasy, smutty-gray substance, 
approaching to yellow. Under these cells of gluten lie, first 

3. The albuminous bodies of the seed, which consists of large 
six-sided prismatic cells (Fig. 19, r), the walls of which are soft, 
clear as glass, and perfectly transparent, and the hollow space in 
the ripe seed is filled with little grains of starch-meal, (Fig. 19, s; 
Fig. 22). These latter are round or irregularly egg-shaped, trans- 
parent and white, and consist of concentric layers or peels (Fig. 
22), the outer of which often bursts or springs open. Between 
the grains of amylum or starch-meal are found still smaller grains 
which consist almost wholly of starch, and must be regarded as 
little grains of amylum. 

At the base of the seed below the little shield lies the embryo 
plant or germ ; but as the same is scarcely ever found in the bud 
of wheat which is affected with brand, the consideration of 



Brand in the Cereals. 7 

this here does not belong to the province of this essay, since no 
immediate transforming influence can be referred to it. 

If now after the minute examination of the sound seed, we 
compare with it the the structure of that which is affected by brand, 
we find that the diseased seed (Fig. 4), is wholly changed as well 
in respect to its form as to its structure. It has become shorter 
and thicker, and not as in the sound seed tapering toward the top 
(Fig. 16), but increased in thickness (Fig. 4). On its base or 
on the head, the anthers remain hanging or standing, while in the 
sound seed they have long since fallen ofl^ The head with the 
pistil (Fig. 4, c), is broader, and the outer skin (a) of the seed 
corn affected by brand is rougher and fine punctm'ed. 

Let a seed corn thus aflfected by brand be cut through horizon- 
tally, and it be examined under a magnifying glass (Fig. 5), we 
find outwardly a simple outer skin, and internally a dark black 
substance often approaching to violet, which is extremely fine 
grained and greasy, gives out a foul penetrating amraoniacal smell, 
and on being dried falls to powder. In the middle of the grain 
affected by brand we generally see a clearer colored square gray 
spot, which on close examination is found to consist of the re- 
mains of the former cellular texture. If now we examine more 
closely the particular organs of such a kernel aflfected with brand, 
we find that the outer skin of the seed thus affected consists of a 
single stiff layer of cells (Fig. 21), the cells of which in respect 
to their form and size, resemble much the outer cellular layer of 
the seed-skin of the sound seed (Fig. 20, w); but their walls are 
no longer porous, but paper-like, stiff" and folded lengthwise; they 
are not so finely colored, as in the sound seed, but are of a smutty 
earth color. The second and third cellular layer (Fig. 19, o, p) 
of the sound seed, has wholly disappeared in the diseased one; 
the same is true of the cells of gluten, of which not a single trace 
remains. 

On examining still more minutely the black smutty mass, which 
fills the space designed for the albuminous bodies, we find that 
here and there it contains some particles of cellular tissue, like the 
cellular tissue of the albuminous bodies, but the cells themselves 



8 Brand in the Cereals. 

are much -widened (Fig. 6, d) and folded. But thehollowspaces, 
are filled with grains of brand (Fig. 6, e). Should the brand not be 
fully ripe or developed, we find the cellular tissue still entirely pre- 
served and connected together, but without any traces of amyluin. 
This latter is scarcely ever developed in diseased seed, but in place 
of it are formed clear globular cells of the same size (Fig. 7), 
which we instantly distinguish as the young grains of brand. 
These by form are oily-grained contents (Fig. 7), which increases 
with the advancing growth of the same (Fig. 8), and their cellu- 
lar skin previously clear as glass and white, becomes brownish 
colored. In the later growth we find the entire cells of brand 
(Fig. 9) filled with little oil-drops, and the cellular wall is of 
pale violet color, but it is still smooth. These cells, natural histo- 
rians call the spores or seeds of the fungi which constitute the brand, 
and in the advancing growth the cellular skin, which is the seed 
skin of the spore, gradually becomes dark colored and covered with 
fine warts, while at the same time the little oil-drops visibly in- 
crease in the space of the spore-skin, and finally flow into a com- 
pact yet scarcely discernible body, (Fig. 10). 

But if we thoroughly examine theripe spores of brand, and wehap- 
pen to obtain good sections of the same — a problem extremely dif- 
ficult on account of the minuteness of the body to be cut, and only to 
be secured by chance — then we see that the spore-skin (Figs. 11, 
12, t, t), of the brand-spore forms a dark colored single membrane 
uneven on the outer surface, which encloses in its hollow space a 
second transparent cell (Figs. 11, 12, 13, u, u, u), which forms 
the second or inner spore-skin. But in the space of the second 
spore skin we find a waxy, curved body (Figs. 11, 13, v, v), 
which is called the kernel of the spore, and which in spores not 
yet fully ripe, appears to be surrounded with little drops of oil. 
The spores compared to other of the different kinds of brand 
are large and their linear diameter is from 0.000700 to 0.- 
000730 ( TJJ9 ) of a Paris inch. The spores distinguish this spe- 
cies of brand from all others which habitate wheat, and their spe- 
cific gravity is greater than that of water; they sink therefore in 
water, and hence the seed which is affected by brand may be 



Brand in the Cereals. 9 

cleaned with running water, as it is thus also clear that well 
washed seed suffers less from the brand. But the seed must he 
thoroughly washed before sowing, in order that the spores of 
the brand, which may still be in the fuiTow of the seed and among 
the chaff-hairs of the head, may be removed. 

Here is not the place to quote all the various opinions of the 
husbandmen and natural historians respecting the existence and 
propagation of the brand in the various kinds of grain generally. 
The conviction and view of every individual is so peculiar a mat- 
ter, which rests on such different grounds of representation and 
positive induction, that opposition to even the crudest ideas (and 
so called experience), according to my multifarious observation, 
is only injurious. 

Yet I may be allowed to maintain here as preliminary, that the 
view which regards the brand merely as a stage of disease, or a 
disease analogous to the organic diseases of the animals, must in- 
deed be false. I can only compare the parasitic formations which 
belong to the class of fungi or mushrooms, to the phticiases or the 
louse disease, and in this case no spontaneous generation is sup- 
posed. We have one of the most decisive proofs in the case of a 
majority of exotic plants which are evidently produced from seed 
and no parasites (especially eutophytes) have been imported from 
their native country, while in our glass house all the plants known 
to me as having been brought alive from the tropic have introduced 
certain eutophytes peculiar each to its species of plants, and not 
belonging to this country. The great idea of De Candolle " the 
spreading of the species of brand depends on the sowing of the 
spores," since the beautiful observations which Gleichen publish- 
ed more than sixty years ago, can no more be doubted. This 
great German natural historian found indeed that the wheat crop 
strewn and sown with brand dust gave over 50 per cent, of ears 
affected by brand, while the dry and thoi'oughly washed seed ex- 
hibited scarcely any ears affected by brand. 

Besides many eutophytes may be transported, and in the kinds of 
brand of grain we are by no means justified in denying the trans- 
mission by spores, and especially as no husbandman can maintain, 
2 



10 Brand in the Cereals. 

" that he has cultivated wholly clean seed containing not a single 
brand-spore;" for in practice the extraordinary minuteness of the 
brand-spores lays an insurmountable obstacle in the way of all 
observations. The parasites which have their abode in the dead 
parts of plants may easily be propagated by the sowing of their 
spores, and a careful observer may in this latter case readily fol- 
low the germ of the spores sown, and the gradual development of 
the parasite through all the stages of its formation, as I have al- 
ready many times shown in other places. But a multitude of eu- 
tophytes besides the sowing by spores also require peculiar condi- 
tions of soil and a moist atmosphere for their development; since 
otherwise the mother plant is not capable of furnishing the nutri- 
tion indispensable for its development, or to perform the secretion 
of the same from its own fluids. 

These organic processes necessary to such formations, are yet 
partially mysteries to natural historians, which may not be laid 
open by logical phrases, or such as belong to natural philosophy. 
Only direct observations can here determine, and all views, opin- 
ions, belief and so-called experience are positively injurious, while 
they are almost ever wanting in any strong induction, and under 
critical examination sink into their original nothingness. It is 
therefore the wiser openly to admit that we have not yet observ- 
ed the direct propagation of the kinds of brand by spores, as we 
must allow on a critical investigation of all circumstances, " that 
the conditions of soil, the influence of cultivation, weather, situa- 
tion and mamire which is required for the spreading of the various 
species of brand, are not fully known." Such conclusions are 
more salutary for the advancement of human knowledge, than all 
the so-called learned or purely empirical talk. 

But since Ehrenberg has practically demonstrated the propaga- 
tion of the infusoria by eggs and division, and I have also the 
sowing of fungi and mushrooms by spores, we may too hope for 
a similar proof of the propagation of eutophytes by spores, and 
until then set aside all speculations on their spontaneous generation 
as injurious and unnecessary, and the more so as nearly every kind 
of plant has parasites exclusively having their abode in it, and 
likewise the soil equally necessary to its development. 



Brand in the Cereals. 11 

Explanation of the Illustrations. 

Plate I, fig. 1; an ear affected with brand of the natural size. 
Figs. 2 and 3, seed kernels affected with brand, with and without 
anthers, of the natural size. Fig. 4, a seed kernel affected by 
the brand, greatly magnified; a, the seed kernel with the fold 
lengthwise; bb, anthers, which stick to the head of the same, 
and on the pistils, c, interwoven by fungous fibres. Fig. 5, a 
horizontal section of same greatly magnified. Fig. 6, a cell of 
this section, with brand-spores, e, greatly magnified. Fig. 7, an 
entire young brand-spore. Figs. 8, 9, older brand-spores, before 
the formation of the kernel and spore-skin. Fig. 10, four ripe 
brand-spores strongly magnified. Fig. 11, section of a spore very 
greatly magnified; t, spore-skin; u, inner spore-skin; v, kernel 
of the spore surrounded with little drops of oil. Fig. 12, a single 
spore of this kind where the kernel of the spore v, with the inner 
spore-skin u yet lies in the hollow space of the outer spore-skint. 
Fig. 13, a kernel of the spore v, represented alone with the inner 
spore-skin u, greatly magnified. Fig. 14, a sound, ripe wheat 
kernel, front view. Fig. 15, the same, back view, with the little 
shield, natural size. Fig. 16, the same, greatly magnified; f, the 
seed-kernel, with the seed-skin; k, the fold lengthwise; g, the 
little opening; h, the head; i, the pistils. Fig. 17, horizontal 
section of the same through the centre, and Fig. 18, slightly mag- 
nified.; 1, the seed skin; k, the fold; m, the albuminous bodies 
Fig. 19 a thinner section of the wheat kernel strongly magnified; 
n, the cellular layers of the first seed skin; o, the second; p, the 
third or innermost seed skin; g, the cells of gluten; r, the cellular 
tissue of the albumen with grains of starch-meal, s. Fig. 20, ex- 
ternal view of a very delicate vertical section of the seed-skin of 
a sound kernel of wheat strongly magnified; w, outer cellular lay- 
er; XX, inner cellular layer of the same greatly magnified. Fig. 
21, the outer skin of a wheat kernel affected with brand of the 
same ear strongly magnified. Fig. 22, little grains of amylum 
very strongly magnified. 



12 Blight in the Cereals. 



II. The Oat Brand. {Uredo AvencB Corda.) 

Plate I. Figs. 23-26. 

Almost all naturalists have confounded this species of brand 
with the brand {flug brand) which lives on barley (Uredo se- 
getum, Pers.); since in common with this latter it is character- 
ized by scattering the spores, the destruction of the buds, and a 
certain stunting of the ears. It has its abode almost ever origin- 
ally in the fruit buds of oats, and afterwards more or less wholly 
attacks the other parts of the bloom. The outer skin of the fruit 
buds is destroyed extremely quick, and soon is entirely gone, and 
before the ears are fully developed the blossom and fruit organs 
are destroyed even to the outer and inner leaves of the bud (Fig. 
24), and the shedding of the pollen of the brand-spores has 
then commenced. The diseased ears of oats show them at a dis- 
tance by their stunted spikes and little branches. The fungous 
brand itself in a ripe state forms a brownish black extremely soft 
powder, which very rapidly sheds out, and examined by the mi- 
croscope, consists of very small transparent roundish little grains, 
which viewed under the water (Fig. 25) are globular or elongat- 
ed, very often for a time double, and of unequal form and size. 
Viewed dry or without water (Fig. 26) they still appear in simi- 
lar forms, but then they are folded over or with curved hollows. 
They consist of a very delicate single spore-skin, and a spore-ker- 
nel almost slimy, filling the whole spore-skin. The spores them- 
selves are very minute; their diameter in the round spores are 
0.000270 ( 37V3 ) Paris inch, and the longest diameter of the 
elongated ones only 0.000310 (uAe) Paris inch. They are 
twice or three times less than the little grains of the wheat brand, 
and much smaller than the spores of the barley brand which are 
represented in the plate, and from the latter of which they are dis- 
tinguished sufficiently in the structure of the spore-kernel. This 
species of brand resembles the millet brand as little as it does the 
barley, as the general structure and spores of that brand are both 
perfectly distinguishable, only the oat brand, the barley brand, and 



lA^M) IN CI'.nlOAl.S 








Fi0 1-S Ifredo se^Uuin VersFi^.O U. /Jr^d,'' c/ra.m.u/,. sVcvs 




S;Priiiioai.7GavitSrJ..i' .^. 



Brand in the Cereals. 13 

the millet brand have smooth spores, though indeed with difficul- 
ty to be confounded and compared; the other kinds of brand which 
have their abode in the buds of our grasses have spores with 
grained spore-skin, and on this account can neither be confounded 
nor compared. The oat brand scatters itself early in the field, and 
it is highly probable, that the spores of all the kinds of brand al- 
ready shedding their dust on the field remain for years in the soil, 
retaining their germinating power until their mother plants again 
come uTider cultivation there, or that they sow themselves in the 
yet tender and first ripening seeds of plants in their neighborhood, 
and thus already lay the germ for the development of their pro- 
geny. 

Explanation of the Illustrations. 
Plate I, Fig. 23, an ear of oats affected with brand, natural 
size. Fig. 24, a single fruit bud of the same diseased. Fig. 
25, spores of the oat brand represented under water and strongly 
magnified. Fig. 26, the same examined dry and powerfully 
magnified. 

III. The Bakley Brand. Plug Brand, JVagel Brand, Riiss Brand, 
Rust, Staub Brand. French — La Rcticulaire des Bles, Char- 
bon, Jfielle, Fuligine, Uredo segetum,[Pers.) or Uredo hordei.* 

Plate II. Figs. 1—8. 
The brand which has its seat in the cars of barley, as we have 
already mentioned, is by not a few naturalists confounded with 
many of the other species of brand, which are found in our culti- 
vated grasses. Like the wheat, oat, and millet brands, it inhabits 
the floral parts, (hluthentheile) of the barley, but it causes the 
most peculiar appearances in the fruit knots, in which it lodges 
itself. The wheat and oat brands in general, wholly destroy the 
fruit knots of these two kinds of grain, without causing any new 
organic formations, except that of the brand. But the case is 
entirely different, with the barley brand. Here are developed in 
the fruit knots, new organs, not belonging to the brand, which in 

'Tessier. Traite des maladies des grains, page 306, Fig. 2—4. 



16 Brand in the Cereals. 

The masses of spores of the barley brand {Jlug brand,) itself, 
forms a disagreeably smutty black mass, varying into an olive 
green, and the spores on being very strongly magnified are oval, 
inclining to round bodies (Fig. 8), the clear transparent yellow- 
brown skin of which, and the spore kernel lying loose and sepa- 
rate, is of a beautiful green color, and under pressure appears to 
be a tolerably compact wax-like substance. The spores are minute 
and their diameter varies from 0.000340 to 0.000380 of a Paris 
inch. 

This brand, like the oat brand, sheds its powder on the field 
before the harvest, and in respect to its seeding, I would express 
the same opinion I have done in regard to the oat brand. Like 
all the other kinds of brand, it appears most abundantly in moist 
cool seasons, on wet soil, and in seed which has been carelessly 
cleaned or selected. 

Explanation of the Illustrations. 
Plate II, Fig. 1, a young fruit knot, (or bead) of barley, slightly 
enlarged. Fig. 2, a section of the same much magnified. Fig. 
3, portions of the section marked by the brackets a, a, in Fig. 2, 
greatly magnified; a, a, the outer skin; b, its bend inward on the 
outer fold lengthwise of the fruit knot; c, c, the second seed skin 
on the albumen; d, e, f, the third seed skin formed of three layers 
which appear open on the side at g; h, the kernel of the plant- 
ego- w-ith the embryo i, i. Figs. 4, 5, seed buds {bluthen) of the 
barley affected by the brand, of the natural size, taken singly from 
the ear; Fig. 6, section of a fruit knot of barley affected by the 
brand, and magnified in order to show the outer skin, the white 
veins and the black masses of brand rolled up together. Fig. 7, 
a very delicate section of the fruit knot of barley affected by the 
brand, strongly magnified; a, the outer skin with its almost nor- 
mal cells only somewhat enlarged ; b, the remains of the cellular 
tissue, large, slight-walled, are derived from the albumen of the 
fruit knot, and yield no little grains of sap, but a juice clear as 
water; c, c, the mass of the brand spores; d, d, the abnormal 
woody bundles, lying between them which, with their narrow ta- 



Brand in the Cereals. 17 

pering side towards the middle of the fruit knot, contain a single 
vessel, its woody cells small, six-sided and thick walled. Fig. 8, 
brand spores very greatly magnified in order clearly to show the 
spore skin and dark spore kernel. 

IV. The Stalk Brand. Sticl brand of the Grasses, Puccinia 
graminis [Persoon). 

Plate II. Fig. 9— 11. 

It infests only the stalk and leaves of our grasses and grain, 
and forms long, slender, dark-brown, somewhat swollen patches 
(Fig. 9), which are surrounded lengthwise on both sides by the 
remains of the outer skin of the stalk or leaves. These patches 
are formed beneath the outer skin, and before they break forth they 
appear in dark-brown shining stripes glistening through the outer 
skin. After they have broken forth, they are conglomerate. 

If now by the help of a very sharp razor we cut off a delicate, 
perfectly transparent section of a culm or haulm affected with the 
stalk brand, running through a patch on the stalk brand which 
has already broken through (Fig. 10), we can clearly see its 
structure. 

We see on the side of the patch of stalk brand, the cells of the 
outer skin (Fig. 10, a), separated and curled up, and also that 
this separation of the outer skin takes place between the two 
parallel woody bundles (b), and rarely runs out over an interven- 
ino- bundle. Directly beneath the outer skin we find the layers 
of the parasite bearer (g, h), on which stand the spores (1). 

But here occurs a very remarkable circumstance. The stalk 
brand is very rarely indeed a primary parasite on the plant. It 
is usually a parasite on a parasite, and especially in the red rust 
of the grasses (Uredo ruhigo vera, De Caud); and the layer of the 
bearer lying immediately under the outer skin, (Fig. g, h), only 
directly belong to it, the lowest layer lying on the cellular tissue 
and destroying it, (g) is flaky, rough (derbe) and pale colored; it 
forms the peculiar bearer ( Hypostroma) of the fungus. Above de- 
velopes itself a layerof cells (b), more equal in height, more perpen- 
3 



18 Brand in the Cereals. 

dicular, finer, more fibrous and simple, which naturalists call ba- 
silar cells, and between which from some of them are formed by 
a direct club-shaped enlargement (Fig. 10, i), the spores of the red 
rust; which continually increase in size and finally become globu- 
lar and of a deep orange-red (Fig. 10, k). In this mother-fungus 
the stalk brand as it were, fixes its nidus (Fig. 10, 1). Its spores 
likewise sprout between the basilar cells (h), and rise upward 
while they form long, delicate stalks, on which they stand singly. 
But from these stalks also spreads downward through the layers 
g, and h, of the mother fungus, a fibrous tissue formed of divided 
fibrous cells, which branch out in many ways (Fig. 10, e), break 
through and interweave the cellular tissue of the grasses, and thus 
crowd into the vacancies and hollow spaces of the haulm. Often 
they press through the entire substance of the plant and form, 
particularly on the leaves of the grasses, beneath the upper skin 
of the opposite surfaces of the leaves, only patches of the stalk 
brand; which then commonly is wanting in the previous red rust. 
But frequently the upper skin of the opposite surface remains un- 
injured (Fig. 10, f ), while the cellular tissue is not entirely inter- 
woven with the fibrous tissue of the fungus, and only slight dis- 
coloralions of the portion opposite the parasite, take place. 

The spores (Fig. 11), of the stalk brand consist of two some- 
what globular cells placed one above the other, with strong, hard, 
stratified, brown-colored transparent spore skin, that in the upper 
cells, towards the point, is decidedly thickened. In each one of 
the two cellular spaces we find a pale colored, waxy, and for the 
most part egg-shaped or elongated spore kernel. The spore stalk 
is a glassy, clear, round, fibrous cell, with a minute hollow space. 
On the base where it passes over into the bearer, it is a little 
thicker. 

The stalk brand is injurious to farmers, only when it affects the 
straw and meadow grasses, in an extraordinary degree, as such 
are scarcely ever eaten by cattle. If the straw is employed for 
the purposes of manufacture, then a very frequent occurrence of 
this brand is extremely injurious, because the assorting of the straw 
costs much trouble and labor. 



i«A-ND TK CERKAI. S 




Ti^l.Z. nre^<^Mnydu- Fi03J7. Urede d^slrmns. SoTileelii. /iy 6L75. CUuU>sp<»;Mm h^/!„„u,„ Link 



F-TittraTcidtPTuiicdl^GaviifrDuibie 



Brand in the Cereals. 19 

Explanation of the Illustrations. 
Fig. 9, a stalk and part of a leaf affected by the stalk brand, of 
the natural size. Fig. 10, a delicate section through a patch of 
the stalk brand on a haulm of rye, magnified; a, the outer skin 
rolled back by the brand; b, outer cluster of cells in the inner bark 
(bartzellenbundel) of the woody bundle; d, the parenchyma of 
the haulm; e, the deficiencies in this parenchyma; f, outer 
skin of the opposite surface; g, the bearer of the red rust; h, the 
layer of basilar cells; i, the young spores of red rust; k, a ripe 
spore of the red rust; 1, ripe spores of the stalk brand, standing 
in a patch. Fig. 11, a ripe spore, as above, of the stalk brand, 
greatly magnified, in order to exhibit the two cells, the cellular 
kernels, and the spore stalk. 

V. The Maize Braxd. Uredo Maydis, {De Candolle), U. Zem, 
(Chevalier.) 

Plate III. Fig. 1—2. 

All the species of brand more or less, cause decisive injury to 
the organs of the plants which they infest. But the maize brand 
among all the kinds of brand found in our cultivated grasses, pro- 
duces the greatest and most extensive local transformations. It 
attacks all the parenchymatous organs of the maize plant and 
more or less completely destroys them. The stalk, however, the 
female and male blossoms, are the parts which it most especially 
affects. The leaves no longer furnish the great parenchymatous 
masses necessary for their development, and usually it seizes merely 
on their lowest parts or also only on the husk bearer. But its 
development here is already imperfect, and it forms on the leaf- 
organs, only brand bladders of the size of a poppy seed to a pea. 
In all the parenchymatous organs however, it developes itself in 
the form of masses, and in good soil, and in actual cultivation of 
the maize, I have seen brand bladders of the size of a child's head. 
Its development is a peculiar one, as it forces out great masses of 
cellular tissue, farmed from the tissue of the mother plant, and 
similar in formation to the latter. 



20 Brand in the Cereals. 

Some parts of the organs affected by the brand swell and be- 
come white. The green color and compact formation of the outer 
skin gradually passes into a soft watery tissue of a silky lustre; 
the skin of which allows the large cellular formation to be seen 
through it by the naked eye. If we more closely examine this 
pathological product, we find that it consists of tolerably large 
tender walled substance, the cells of which, like that of the nor- 
mal vegetable tissue, contain sap, and possess a large slimy cellu- 
lar kernel sticking on the side. In each of these cells at a later 
period is secreted a slimy granulous substance, which is yellow- 
ish, and afterwards brownish, in which still later the brand is de- 
veloped. Prof. Meyen examined this brand formation very criti- 
cally, and we may here be allowed to repeat his investigations: 

At first is seen in the large and juicy cells of the maize plant, 
or especially in the pathological cellular substance, the above 
mentioned little deposites of slime, which are produced on the 
inner surface of the cellular walls. From these, at first wholly 
irregularly-formed, almost transparent deposites, proceed fibrous, 
dismembered and branching structures, which already exhibits a 
plant-like form, and which by their later changes more clearly 
evidence the same. These truly parasitic formations are in the 
beginning colorless, almost entirely transparent, and only under a 
strong magnifying exhibit a fine grained organised structure in 
their tender, slimy substance. But soon it is observed, that par- 
ticular boughs of this little plant are branched out, and in indi- 
vidual cases yet more developed, branches and twigs stand closely 
crowded together. At the same time with this branching, the 
fibres are already partially separated into small globular bodies, 
sometimes at the base, and sometimes at the point of the fibres; 
but for the most part their little side branches first separate off 
themselves. Many fibres are wholly changed into little branches 
in a wreathed form, which still hang together. They are origin- 
ally ellipsoidal and then become more or less globular, are at first 
of a yellowish and afterwards of a brownish color, and at last 
brown. But they likewise separate themselves from the branches 
producing them, and often before they have reached their normal 



Brand in the Cereals. 21 

size, which follows after their separation as it were by a sort of 
after ripening. By and by all the fibres fall away into such spores 
or grains of brand; by and by too the cells of the diseased vege- 
table substance are destroyed, and if we carefully cut through 
lengthwise (Fig. 1, b), the brand bladders not yet opened or sprung 
apart (Fig. 1, a); we find that the white cellular substance ap- 
pears to be interwoven with irregular masses of brand, partially 
isolated and in the form of cells; the cellular substance which 
still remains standing, forms white sheath walls, and cells, or bet- 
ter described, deficiencies, the hollow space of which is filled with 
the dark-biown brand. By and by this remains of the cellular 
tissue constituting sheath walls, becomes absorbed, and only the 
outer skin of the brand bladder continues standing; but it begins 
likewise to be colored reddish, or smutty, to become wrinkled or 
in folds, to dry up and finally to tear open, by which the substance 
of the brand spores is emptied and as it were sown out. This 
species of brand causes manifold degenerations of particular parts 
and organs of the mother plants. On the stalk it forms irregularly 
rounded brand bladders, very greatly differing in size. On the 
female blossoms it never attacks all the blossoms (hluthen) of an 
ear; the blossoms on the top of the ear are for the most part more 
exposed to the brand than those at the base. Often only those 
fruit buds that stand at the very tip, and frequently only the basi- 
lar ones are diseased. Here the brand attacks only the fruit knot 
and changes it directly into a brand bladder; so that indeed a 
person may find on the latter still the remainsof the wasted pistil. 
But the rachis (midrib?) itself I have never found entirely gone. 
More frequently it seizes on the husk leaves, and then changes the 
whole ear or the fruit bearing branch into an organ not unlike a 
pine apple, it thickens all the leaves and forms them similar to 
the scales of a fir cone. But in the male blossoms {hluthen) the 
brand seizes on the receptacle and the anthers, more rarely the 
petals, and changes all these organs into white, curled-up, easily- 
bent brand bladders, one to three lines thick and often two or 
three inches long, which are likewise white, and of a beautiful 
silky lustre, slightly tinged with red at the tip and on the side 
springing open to let out the spores. 



22 Brand in the Cereals. 

The spores (Fig. 2) in their normal state are globular, but they 
are very frequently likewise somewhat ellipsoidal. In a ripe state 
they are brown. The spore skin is covered with little warts and 
on many spores may be observed a dark point in the middle, the 
little opening (feusterchen? hilum) by which they were fastened 
to the fibrous bearer. Their diameter varies from 0.000320 — 0.- 
000340 Paris inch. 

This species, always impairs some blossoms, as soon as it is 
seated in the ear, while the other blossoms standing near bear 
good ripe kernels. The brand bladders can be very easily re- 
moved from the living plants by cutting them out, only this must 
be done as timely as possible in order that in cutting them out, 
the bladders may not scatter their powder, and thus a future crop 
of brand not be prevented. For seed only kernels should be se- 
lected from plants which have remained wholly free from the 
brand. This kind of brand is by the structure of its spores differ- 
ent from all others, and only related to the wheat brand. 

Explanation of the Illustrations. 
Fig. 1, brand bladders; a, on the stalk of maize of the natural 
size; b, such a brand bladder cut through lengthwise. Fig. 2, 
spores strongly magnified. 

VI. The Millet Brand. Uredo destruens, {Schlechtendahl.) 
Plate III. Fig 3—7. 

As the maize brand by the formation of a mass of abnormal 
cellular tissue produces a peculiar covering for itseli', even so, or 
at least analogous thereto, the millet brand produces for itself, its 
own peculiar covering, in which it enwraps and vitiates the col- 
lective organs of blossoming and fructification or of the panicle. 
Here the original formation enters within the panicle sheath, and 
the leaves which invest it in its earliest growth; and as soon as 
the brand reaches the outward surface or becomes visible, it is 
already perfected and immediately ripe for sowing its seed. It 
comes forth as a white, thin, oval-elongated body between the 
capsular leaves of the millet (Fig. 3, a), which on closer exami- 



Brand in the Cereals. 23 

nation appears rough on the outer surface and resembling the 
outer foim of an egg shell. This outer skin is very brittle, and 
usually becomes split into many wide openings, running length- 
wise (Fig. 3) whereby the dark-olive spores are rendered visible. 
But in the ripening of the brand, this brand covering almost wholly 
falls to pieces and we find only its scanty remnants of the ba^e. 
After its destruction the mass of brand appears intersected a;/ it 
were, by numberless thin sparry fibres, (Fig. 4, 5); these fib|es 
are the woody bundle of the panicle stems (Rispenstiele) whik;h 
are wholly destroyed up to these. Under the microscope we 
plainly see, that these fibres (Fig. 6) are the woody bundles di- 
vested of the parenchymatous tissue, to which remains nothing 
but the layer of inner bark, (Fig. 6, a), and the spiral vessels, 
(Fig. 6, b). But before the observation is made, we must care- 
fully cleanse them from the spores which stick to them (c), and 
which render impossible any observation, as they smTOund them 
with a tolerably strong layer. 

The spores (Fig. 7) are oval-globular, smooth, transparent, 
olive-brown, with large kernels filling the hollow space of the 
spore skin, and having pretty distinct little openings (feuster- 
chen? hilurn) Their diameter varies from 0.000420 to 0.000430 
Paris inch. 

From the formation of this general covering of the brand skin, 
the husbandman can very easily keep his millet seed clean from 
infection ; provided he causes the branded ears to be carefully re- 
moved in time and burned. But they must not be cast on the 
dunghills, for multifarious experiments teach that the spores of 
the fungus will retain their germinating power for years in the 
earth, and they will even pass through the digestive organs of 
animals and be discharged perfectly unimpaired and produce new 
funo-i, as I have particularly observed with respect to the common 
toad stool. 

Explanation of the Illustrations. 

Fig. 3, a millet plant with the brand a, not yet fully opened. 
Fio-. 4, a brand shedding its powder of the natural size. Fig. 5, 
single fibres of this brand of the natural size. Fig. 6, such a fibre 



24 Brand in the Cereals. 

magnified; a, the cells of the inner bark; b, the spiral vessels of 
the woody bundles; c, the brand spores. Fig. 7, spores strongly 
magnified. 

VII. The Rye Brand. Roggen or Ranch brand, Cladosporium 
herbarum, {Link.) 

Plate III. Fig. 8—15. 

It has been already remarked in the Introduction, that the au- 
thor of these pages has never found rye affected by any kind of 
brand; which observation has been confirmed, as regards the 
Aug brand in the following words by Prof. Dr. Kunze of Leipsic. 
" Obs. It is called Aug brand by the farmers of Germany. It 
is remarkable that it never infests the cereal rye. (The Fungi of 
Germany, No. 9, page 5, Leipsic, Voss., 1819.")* 

When we therefore give to the following parasite the popular 
name, we by no means wish thereby to discredit the above ex- 
pressed experience, and would observe that the ranch brand of rye 
is no species of brand, but is a kind of fungus. It affects rye in 
moist cloudy seasons, and is especially found in narrow high 
mountain valleys. It is not developed in the tissue of the mother 
plant, but it seats itself on its upper surface, and only sentls the 
fibres of its root-texture into the substance of the mother plant. 
In rye this parasite nevertheless hinders the full ripening of the 
grain, and the seeds of the ears attacked by it are small, stunted, 
horny, and give a poor flour which is still more affected by the 
parasite, as the washing and moistening of the grain before grind- 
ing, cannot remove it; but on the contrary fixes it more firmly 
than before. 

This brand, the rauch brand, belongs to the fibrous fungi and 
appears at first as a slight blackening of the ears, as soon as these 
begin to ripen and turn yellow. In its developed state it forms 
on the ears irregularly shaped rough masses (Fig. 18), of a dark- 



* Obs. Flug brand, ab agricolis Germanial vocatur. Insigne, quod Le- 
cate, cereale nunquam infestat. (Teutschlands Schwamme. No 9, s. 5, 
Leipsic, Voss., 1819.) 



Brand in (he Cereals. 25 

olive color varying to a blackish hue. This seats itself especial- 
ly on the heads of the seed corns (Fig. 9, 10, 11), and only in its 
very highest development passes over to the other parts of the 
fruit bud and unites itself with them. If we closely examine this 
olive-green substance, we find that it consists of perpendicular ar- 
ticulated olive-green, transparent fibres(Fig. 12), which develope 
on their points elongated spores that afterwards fall off and ap- 
pear scattered in among the fibres. These spores are sometimes 
one celled (Fig. 13), sometimes two and three celled (Fig. 14), 
and are light olive-green, smooth, with a delicate spore skin. In 
every spore cell is found a slimy spore kernel filling the hollow 
space. The diameter lengthwise of the spores varies from 0.000- 
300 to 0.000860 Paris inch. The spores sprout again on the 
ears still standing in the field (Fig. 15), while one of their cells 
spreads out sideways and forms an articulated cellular fibre, like 
the fibre of the developed fungus (Fig. 12), which in moist and 
warm weather in the course of twenty-four hours again produces 
a new plant and new spores. This rapid reproduction makes this 
funo-us so injurious in moist warm autumn weather, and if the 
grain comes to the threshing in a moist state, the fungus also in- 
creases in a truly frightful manner, indeed in damp granaries, or 
■when the kernels are somewhat moist it increases most extraordi- 
narily and sticks the kernels together. 

Explanation of the Illustrations. 

Fio-. 8, an ear affected by the rauch brand of the natural size. 
Figs. 9, 10, 11, seeds and fruit buds (bl'dthen) of rye, affected by 
the rauch brand of the natural size. Fig. 12, single fibres of the 
fundus with spores. Fig. 13, single celled. Fig. 14, many cell- 
ed spores much magnified. Fig. 15, a germinating spore of the 
rauch brand greatly magnified. 



26 Brand in (he Cereals. 

VIII. The Red Corn Brand. Spindel brand, Septo sporium 
graminum (Corda). Fusarium heterosporum {J\'ees). 

Plate III. Fig. 16—20. 

This parasite likewise belongs not to the species of brand, but 
to the fungi on the outer skin (^haui piltzeii). It appears on the 
fruit knots of the grasses, especially of the ray grasses, and of rye, 
and forms on the same, a deep-red, compact, afterwards confluent, 
moist gelatinous mass, which, generally, is from two to three 
times, but often becomes half an inch long, and sticks together 
the parts of the fruit bud {hluthenthiele). The kernels or seed of 
the grasses when they are attacked by this fungus appear swelled 
up and deformed (Figs. 16, 17, 18), and their outer skin is 
wholly impaired, while the albuminous substance remains totally 
unaltered, and the starchmeal also undergoes no perceptible dete- 
rioration. The fungus itself, as seen in their sections under a 
microscope, forms directly over the destroyed seed skin, a confus- 
ed cellulai', fleshy, thin, reddish-white layer (Fig. 19 a); on which 
the cells forming the spores called basidal (Fig. 19, b), are de- 
veloped, as single separate fibres. These cells form on their tops 
and partly between themselves, long spindle-shaped, four-celled, 
transparent, pale-red spores (Fig. 19 b, 20 c), tapering at both ends, 
of from 0,00090 to 0.00110 Paris inch in length; which when 
balled up together compose the deep-red cover of the fungus. 
Between the spores are often found wasted three-celled or single- 
celled egg-shaped spores (Fig. 20). The fungus itself is not in- 
jurious, but on damp meadows it often to a considerable extent, 
deteriorates the ears of ray grasses; on rye I have seen it to ap- 
pear abundantly, only in quite elevated situations on the borders 
of the rye culture. 

Explanation of the Illustrations. 
Figs. 16, 17, 18, single degenerated seeds of rye affected by 
the fungus of the natural size. Fig. 19, a thinner section of the 
fungus magnified; a, the fleshy bearer, the bassidae; c, the spores. 
Fig, 20, single spores much magnified. 



27 Brand in the Cereals. 

IX. The Ergot. Mutter knrn, Kormz apfen, Roggen mutter, Mar- 
tin's korti, Halinspnrn, Todlenkopf, Gerslen. mutter, fyc. Hy- 
menula Clavus [Corda). French — Ergot, [Tessier, Malad. des 
grains, p. 21). English — Cockspur, Black grain of corn, Ergot. 

Plate III. Fig. 21-30. 

This disease so noxious to our cultivated grasses ever since the 
time of Tessier, has been investigated, in various forms, as to its 
natural history by Queckett, Bauer, Fee and Leveille, and the il- 
lustrations of it as well as the hypotheses of its origin have induced 
critical study respecting this so simple fungus. More particularly 
has the transformation of the seed in the fungus been subjected to 
examination; but without any previous decided knowledge of 
natural history, and the microscopic analyses, have been very neg- 
lio-ently performed by naturalists. On the other hand however, it 
has been carefully inquired, whether or not this or that part of the 
seed was contained, and could be discovered in the ergot. Simi- 
lar has been the case with the investigation of the parasite which 
causes this deformity, it exhibits numerous names of naturalists 
because they have made no perfect analysis of the fungus. The 
reader who may be interested in the contradictory opinions, often 
expressed, may find the same scattered through the following 
works : 

Meyen ueber das Mutter korn, in Miiller'sarchiv. for Anatomic 
und Physiologie, 1838, § 357. 

Spiering de Lecale cornuto. Diss, inaug. Berol. 1839. Le- 
veille Memoires surl'ergot. In the Mem. de la Societ. Lieneenne 
de Paris, v. p. 365. 

Phoehus, Teutsche Giftgewachse, 1838, p. 97. 

Meyen, Pflanzenpathologie, 1841, p. 195. 

Observations on the cause of Ergot, by Mr. James Smith, A. L. 
S., Linnean Society Trans. XVIII. 3 p. 449. 

Observations on the Ergot of Rye and some other Grasses, by 
Edwin J. Queckett, Esq., F. L. S. (Linn. Tr. 1 c. p. 475.) 

For the sake of brevity I shall here omit all the opinions and 
views, and only relate what I have myself observed, and can also 
be responsible for, little as it may indeed be. 



Brand in the Cereals. 28 

If we closely examine the seed affected by the ergot, we find 
it covered with a bluish-gray growth, resembling down, which is 
easily wiped off, whereby the dark-violet color of the layer be- 
neath is made to appear. In many seeds we see the pistil still 
remaining and thickened towards the top (Fig. 21), but in all 
these are yet found traces of the little shield [schildchen), (Fig. 
22), at the base of the fungus. Viewed in the section, the fungus 
forms a white, compact homogenous mass, which at the first ap- 
pears to be composed of the dark line of the basilar layer, and 
from the middle to the margin exhibits yellow, unequally connect- 
ed rays (Fig. 23). On considering the outer surface still more 
closely, the ergot, in almost all the portions I have seen, is found 
covered with four furrows, or cracks on the side lengthways, which 
often penetrate through the black covering. If now we examine 
the individual parts of the alieady ripened kernel from without, 
with the microscope, we find that the rime, or white growth, is 
spread in fine downy masses (Fig. 24, a), over the black covering 
b, and that it is formed from the fruit bed {frucht-lager) of the 
fungus which thus transforms the seed. Cut oil a very thin sec- 
tion; but it must be taken off through the fine downy mass of the 
fruit bed, without destroying it; we find on examining from the 
interior outward, (1), that the inner white mass of the ergot con- 
sists of an extraordinarily fine cellular tissue (Fig. 25, d), which 
in section under water, gives out drops of oil more or less large 
(Fig. 25, e). This viewed by a stronger magnifier, consists of 
small six-angled somewhat thick-walled cells (Fig. 27), each of 
which contains within it one or two little drops of oil. The oil 
is yellowish, and on the light being passed through it, greenish. 
This mass of cellular tissue forms the peculiar bearer of the fun- 
gus, and as it were runs into the stem and cap, and towards the 
outside terminates in a dark black line (Fig. 25, c), which consists 
of a simple layer of black cells, imparts the black color to the 
fungus seen from without, and forms an extremely thin layer, on 
which (2) the fruit bed {frucht-lager) of the fungus toward the 
outside rests. This consists of a single layer of fibrous, single one 
celled undivided basidial cells (Fig. 25, b), of white color, which 
towards the upper part produce and accumulate the spores (Fig. 



29 Brand in the Cereals. 

25, a, 3). The spores form fine down that may be rubbed off, on 
the spurred grain, and to this is to be attributed in a great degree 
the poisonous effects of the ergot. They are, viewed when pow- 
erfully magnified (Fig. 26) elongated, ellipsoidal, often curled up- 
on the side, smooth, greenish-white; their spore skin is extraor- 
dinarily delicate, transparent, lying close to the crooked, greenish, 
wax-like, transparent spore kernels, and frequently containing 
two greenish little drops of oil. The spores are from 00030 to 
0.00035 Paris inch in length. When placed on fresh moist fruit 
knots or on other portions of the plant, they germinate with ex- 
traordinary rapidity and on the object bearer of the microscope 
under water we can see them germinate also in twelve to twenty- 
four hours, while they lengthen out one or two points of their 
spore skin into fibres, and these fibres afterwards open into cells, 
whereby from the branching out at the openings as it were, a new 
root texture is formed for the future fungus. It is a matter of re- 
gret that Messrs. QueckeWs and Francis Baiier''s illustrations of 
this microscopic process are so unsatisfactory. I shall repeat them 
elsewhere after my own observations. 

According to my accurately made analysis, the fungus belongs 
to the species Hymenula among the fleshy fungi, where also on 
decaying remains of plants it has. a multitude of associates, which 
likewise greatly impair and destroy their mother plants and lodg- 
ing places. The noxious quality of the fungus as well as its 
medicinal use I take for granted to be already well known, and 
will now pass over to the comparison of the appearances in the 
diseased and the sound seed, in order to sketch the injurious power 
of this hardly visible parasite. 

If a thin section of a sound kernel of rye be made (Fig. 28), 
we find that the seed skin (Fig. 28, a), consists of three thick 
walled celhdar layers, and beneath these we find the second seed 
skin, properly the third, formed of a single layer of thick wall- 
ed cells b, with scarcely any perceptible hollows. Directly 
after this follow the cellular layer, containing gluten c, and now 
first the cellular tissue of the albuminous substance d, which con- 



Brand in the Cereals. 30 

sists of large, somewhat round, six-sided cells, containing grains of 
starch meal (Fig. 26). The grains of starch meal themselves are 
roundish or ellipsoidal (Fig. 30), and formed like all other grains 
of starch meal; they are 0.000150 Paiis inch in length, and are 
thus nearly five times larger than the spores of the parasite itself. 
But all these organic tissues are transformed, or as it may be 
better expressed, entirely crowded out. The seed skins and cells 
of gluten (Fig. 28, a, b, c) in the parasite, are only indicated by 
the black layer (Fig. 25, c); the large cells (Fig. 28, d. Fig. 29) 
of the albuminous substance together with their amylum have dis- 
appeared, and are replaced by the cells of the bearer (Fig. 27) 
nearly fifty times less in size. The amylum here, as the contents 
of the cells, is replaced, as it were, by the little drops of oil con- 
tained in the cells of the bearer. And as the organization of the 
seed is wholly changed, so too are the organic effects of the two 
substances become different. The grain of rye was nutritious, 
palatable, healthy; the spurred rye (Mutter korn) is in the high- 
est degree noxious, poisonous, the means of producing raphanic, 
insanity, and abortion; its medicinal usefulness is by no means a 
counterbalance to the dangerous, poisonous effects, which it pro- 
duces when introduced among human food. 

I conclude here the first course of investigations respecting the 
diseased appearance of plants generally, and once more beg of the 
respected reader to judge candidly and favorably of these desulto- 
ry pages, and to receive the matters of fact related and illustrated 
■without any fanciful forms of knowledge, as the pure observations 
of nature. Elsewhere when I shall consider these appearances 
in their most intimate connections with the functions of life, of 
the vegetable organization, collectively, these same may be more 
extensively estimated and the appearances, here only slightly in- 
dicated, then by an accurate anatomico-physiological delineation 
of the general organization, may receive their far more natural 
and comprehensive explanations and illustrations. The respected 
reader will probably thank me for having here avoided all foreign 



Brand in the Cereals. 31 

observations, and that I have only given my own experience, and 
kindly aciinowledge it, since I have performed my work to the 
best of my ability. 

Explanation of the Illustrations. 

Figs. 21, 22, the spurred rye in its natural size. Fig. 23, a 
section of the same seen under a microscope and slightly magni- 
fied. Fig. 24, the top of a spurred rye-kernel .seen under the mi- 
croscope greatly magnified, in order to show the layers of spores 
b, and the bearer a. Fig. 25, a thinner section of the spurred rye 
very strongly magnified; a, the layer of spores; b, the basidal 
cells; c, the outer skin of the bearer; d, substance of the bearer; 
e, little drops of oil from the substance of the bearer, with the oil 
bearing cells powerfully magnified. Fig. 28, a thin section from a 
ripe kernel of rye much magnified; a, the seed skin; b, the inner 
seed skin; c, cellulai- layers of gluten; d, albuminous substance 
formed from the cells that bear starchraeal. Fig. 29, a cell of al- 
buminous substance with grains of amylum very strongly magnified. 
Fig. 30, single grains of amylum of rye very strongly magnified. 
translator's address. 

The readers of the Journal who have examined the article now 
first offered to the public in an English dress, will doubtless have 
noticed the use of some words which are new to our language. 
Those only who have attempted to transfer a scientific essay from 
one language to another can fully appreciate the difficulties under 
which a translator labors in finding the requisite words to express 
his meaning. Especially is this true in respect to the production 
of many German writers. The investigations are carried out into 
such minuteness of detail, that no corresponding terms are in use 
among us to give the precise shades of thought implied in their 
compound words. For example the words Bl'dthen, Bluthenlhiele, 
Frucht knoten, Frucht boden, Feusterchen, &c., in certain modes 
of using them, mean a particular state of the floral or fructified 
plant, for which we have no appropriate words. The meaning, 



32 Brand in the Cereals. 

is perhaps evident in the course of the observations of the author 
and by a reference to the illustrations. Our German dictionaries 
are wanting in many of these scientific words. I have availed 
myself of such helps as were within my command, and in view of 
the difficulties of the .subject have sometimes ventured to give only 
a literal translation by a similar form of compound, leaving the 
connexion to show the meaning. In some few instances, after all 
the pains I have taken to arrive at the precise sense, I am not 
quite certain that I have gained my object. In the main howev- 
er, I believe that the article will be found to be accurately trans- 
lated, and as such, cannot but hope that it will be regarded as not 
an unworthy addition to the stock of information respecting the 
diseases of our most important cereals. 

Since I have been engaged in this translation, I have met with 
an essay by the same author on the Potato Disease, characterised 
by the minuteness of investigation and accuracy of discrimination 
•which is so evident in the foregoing pages; and illustrated by a 
number of plates, some of them colored, giving the microscopic 
appearances observed. At some future period, when my time will 
allow, I may prepare for the press this article on the Potato Di- 
sease, with perhaps a few other valuable selections from the Ger- 
man economists and naturalists. 



CONTRIBUTION 



KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS 



BRAND IN THE CEREALS 



BLIGHT IN GRAIN. 



BY A. C. CORDA. 



Translated from the German for i!ie Am. Jour, of Africuliure and Science, by 

BY E. GOODRICH SMITH, 

Of Ihe United States Patent Office. 



ALBANY: 

PRINTED By J. MUNSELL. 

1847. 



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